Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with irc

Is there an AIM-to-IRC bot?

Mwongozi — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 07:54:08 -0800

Can I talk to my IRC-using friends via AIM? Bitlbee is the exact opposite of what I'm looking for. I essentially want a bot that will sit on an IRC server, pretending to be me, and forward any private messages to my AIM client - also relaying back my responses.

I don't really care about channels, I just want to be able to MSG people.

Does this exist? My Google-fu is failing me.

What is a good low-noise IRC client?

scharpy — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 10:55:57 -0800

What is a good low-noise IRC client that will notify me of posts to a channel without requiring user intervention to make the notification go away? My work place currently uses mIRC to communicate. When something is posted to our channel, it is usually idle chit-chat, or something similarly negligible, but from time to time it will be some Earth-shattering catastrophe that demands immediate attention.

For that reason I have mIRC set to flash when there are updates, but I end up needing to click on (or alt-tab to) the window about 40 times a day and it's only about 1/20 of the time when I need to read what's being posted in the channel. If I don't click the window or it's location on the taskbar it will continue it's seizure-inducing flashing while I try to do my work.

I'm wondering if there's a IRC client that will do something similar to Outlook 2007 when mail comes in (e.g. a pop-up in the lower right that fades away gently) giving me time to read the message but not requiring user intervention to make it go away.

What realtime chat service is best for a private forum?

Kai2 — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 12:48:08 -0800

I need to setup a real time chatroom service for a private members only web forum. My first instinct is IRC. I've used IRC in the past, but am no expert. I need a service which will scale to a few hundred users and allow me to limit who can join by username. I know for IRC I will need to setup a bot to keep the channel operational at all times and I also know this is not easy. So im also thinking about just installing a chat script on my own server. What are the advantages of IRC and which option do you think suits my requirements best?

How to test a chat bot?

marble — Fri, 06 Feb 2009 20:08:12 -0800

How would you know a decent chat bot if you found one? I'm wondering what kinds of tricks you would use to figure out it's a bot, and to figure out how (un)sophisticated it was. I recently decided to play around with Perl again, and managed to cobble together a simple irc bot skeleton that I downloaded and somehow got to work. I might try to code up something rudimentary to amuse my daughter or something. I was looking at threads like this one and trying to get an idea of what would be impressive feats, for a chat bot.

I have some ideas myself, such as:

- teaching the bot something then asking about it later
- asking things about its personal history, family, whatnot
- asking it simple math problems

This is just a simple little project I'm playing with that probably won't go anywhere, but I find it intriguing to think about how I would go about trying to solve some of these problems, if I lacked my crippling laziness.

So, how would you probe a bot? What would be the dead giveaways, and what would give you pause / impress you if you saw the bot could handle it?

What IRC bot do developers use?

butterstick — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 07:26:23 -0800

What is a good IRC bot to run on an internal IRC server used by programmers in a software development company? I've been in a number of IRC channels for open source projects where the IRC bot provides some really neat functionality. I'd like it to integrate with our CVS system, and possibly our bug tracking (JIRA) platform. An ability to index our Wiki would be pretty rad as well.

What is the current state of IRC based integration with software management systems?

Incorrectly Issued International Reply Coupon?

c0nsumer — Sat, 20 Sep 2008 09:07:48 -0800

Are the International Reply Coupons my girlfriend purchased done... wrongly? My girlfriend recently purchased two International Reply Coupons so that we could request tickets to the Ceremony of the Keys at the Tower of London. However, when she went to the local post office, she ran into some difficulties. At first the employee didn't seem to know what an IRC was, then after talking to peers he found two, but stuck $0.25 worth of US stamps on them, canceled the stamps, then sold them to her for the $1.85 cover price plus $0.25 for the stamps each.

Here is a photo of the two questionable International Reply Coupons with the seemingly odd stamping.

I'm having difficulties finding info on how IRCs are supposed to be issued and none of the photos I can find on Google Images or Flickr seem to be stamped / canceled this way. Before heading back to the post office to question the employee's handle of the situation, I'm hoping that someone here can help me determine if these are done right or need to be returned and reissued.

Thanks!

Mr. All-knowing Super-hacker/psychologist Mefite, I need your help securing our IRC conversations...

Anonymous — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 23:47:24 -0800

Some really important info was leaked from our private IRC channel on our own server. Luckily, it was something that most people wouldn't believe without real proof, which the leaker didn't really have. So we're glad to have not been in a real shit-hit-the-fan situation yet. Can you find the weak link, or atleast offer suggestions on how to stop this from happening again? A little bit of info about our setup... We own our own dedicated server which runs a public IRCD (UnrealIRCD latest stable version if you're curious). On this network, we have our own invite-only private channel which only about 10-14 people have access to. The channel is +i and +k with a large enough key that cannot be bruteforced. On top of that, we use FiSH encryption (blowfish) inside the channel. The key for the channel is exchanged/given to others after initiating a PM session which is also blowfish encrypted after a Diffie-Hellman 1080 key-exchange. So we're pretty sure that our encryption key hasn't been sniffed at any point. Plus, even having the dedicated server rootkitted/trojanned wouldn't compromise our encrypted talk since it's only forwarding encrypted packets. All of us connect using one of the two clients - mirc and xchat.

The only way to get something from this channel that I can think of is either someone leaking the info by mistake or on purpose, or people with trojans or keyloggers. We're pretty sure none of us are infected after running multiple scans for rootkits, viruses/trojans and checking outgoing/incoming connections and processes. But it obviously cannot be ruled out since none of the tools are 100% trustworthy when it comes to detection. About someone leaking info from here, well, I'd like to think it's impossible. All of us have been a part of this channel for upwards of a year now, would trust each other, and have had access to a lot more important stuff than what was leaked. If someone wanted to make a profit off it, they could have done so quite a long time ago... Again, not ruling it out, but if there is another explanation for this leak, I'd put my faith in it being that one instead of the theory of a leaker.

The info was posted on a bunch of public forums. We're friends with the admins of all those public forums and had access to the poster's ip. Unfortunately, all of them were known TOR ips, so we cannot really find out who it was.

So, super-hacker mefites, find our weak link, and offer me suggestions on how I/we can make it even more secure. If you're a super psychologist (or is it psychiatrist?), you can even offer suggestions on how I could find the leaker by observing behavior patterns. Thanks!

anonymous throwaway mail for this question: mefitempmailacc@gmail.com

2003 or 2006 IRC?

gregoryc — Wed, 30 Jan 2008 17:07:45 -0800

Should I learn the 2006 or 2003 International Residential Code? I currently work for a residential remodeling company in a jurisdiction that uses the 2003 IRC. I'm likely to move in the next year or two to a jurisdiction that currently uses neither, but appears likely to adopt the 2003 IRC soon. (Why not the 2006? I don't know). I don't *need* to know either right now, but plan on going into business for myself sometime in the future, and will then. I'd rather not waste my time learning the 2003 since it seems inevitable that by the time it will potentially be useful to me, I'll need to know the 2006. Besides are they backwards compatible at all?? I don't know much about how significant the differences are. Any suggestions? Thanks.

World of Warcraft filter: I want to create a group channel for all 3 guilds on the site channel. Possibly mod or addon?

spinko — Mon, 13 Aug 2007 10:20:35 -0800

World of Warcraft filter: I want to create a group channel for all 3 guilds on the site channel. Possibly mod or addon? We have 3 guilds on the same server and want to stay as we are, however we want to chat as 1. I was looking around the web for addons, mods and even 3rd party software for this.

We have tried the /join guildname but no one uses it as the colour doesnt stand out (yes I know we can change it) and we always have to do a /6 to speak (which is annoying). So I was thinking about a mod that would automatically connect to '/join guildname' but then discard the /g and mask it in that place. So /g is infact /6 and we wont have change the colours and type /6 everytime we talke. However, would this be a mod? or is there anything out there that does similar?

The other way around this is to use Xfire, however this 3rd party application doesnt allow groups of people to chat. Good for 1 on 1 not as a group.

Irc could be used, however we can then link our 2 other alliance guilds with the 3 main ones to make a global guild chat for other servers also. Is there any applications that work in the same way as Xfire but for group chats in games?

Hope you can help.

Any good ircd hosts?

Hot Like Your 12V Wire — Fri, 27 Jul 2007 00:54:54 -0800

What are some good, reasonably-price ircd hosts? I'm looking to get a small ircd started (around 100 users max, maybe a basic eggdrop bot) and am looking for a great host to do so with. Unfortunately, while there are plenty hosting review and rating sites for conventional hosting, finding shell/ircd hosts that are reputable and fairly priced. Where should I be considering?

Connect multiple servers and channels IRC

tommac2005 — Thu, 24 May 2007 14:06:12 -0800

IRCFilter: I'm looking for a quick bit of help on the use of NWNK-IRC. I have several servers that I wish to connect to when I load the program, and several different channels on each server I wish to join. How? I've tried putting /server-m commands, /join commands /server commands in my Perform, but I don't seem to be able to crack it after hours of looking. Most things involve /server-m commands in your perform, but I can't get it to work :(

Where do I put the commands, and which commands do I use? NWNK-IRC is a Mirc script which adds tonnes of functionality on top.

If someone could post the commands, and a step --> by --> step walkthru, it would be greatly appreciated.

IRC Client for Dummies

Jimbob — Tue, 22 May 2007 02:34:27 -0800

IRC for dummies - what's the best client to reccomend for serial Internet Explorer users, that supports irc:// links? I manage a forum for my better half, and we've been looking for a way to include real-time chat functionality. After having found PHP browser-based chat scripts to be slow and clumsy, and some of the new flash-based chat options (like Meebo Rooms) to be unconfigurable, I've decided that good old fashioned IRC might be the best way to do things.

A certain percentage of members on the forum would probably get frustrated by installing and configuring a separate IRC client, particularly if they have to configure the server and room options (clients tend to come packed with dozens of IRC networks built in). For Firefox users, I'm going to send people a link to install Chatzilla, then provide an irc://... URL for them to click on to enter chat, and that works great. My problem is with IE users - I can't find any add-on for Internet Explorer with the equivalent functionality as Chatzilla.

So, my question specifically is:
- Is there an IRC add-on for Internet Explorer available, that works with irc:// URLs?
- If not, what's the simplest free Windows IRC client that reliably supports being opened by irc:// URLs?
- Failing that, any other ideas? I've ruled out a browser-based IRC client, like PJIRC, on the grounds that all the ones I've tried have pretty much sucked - have been slow, and buggy, and haven't worked for a certain proportion of users.

I'm looking for a reliable shell account service.

adipocere — Wed, 04 Oct 2006 06:41:52 -0800

I'm looking for a reliable shell account service. Having never sought such a thing before, I'm not entirely sure what to ask for. I'm not terribly experienced with shells. What I am looking for is some anonymity when connecting to IRC, so I don't have to deal with packet monkeys and port-scanning fools, plus some small amenities. Here's what seems to be necessary:

Long-standing service, so they don't disappear overnight, as many shell providers have when I look over previously established lists of shell providers.

Payment: Be able to pay by money order.

Allowable (or encouraged) use of BNC or some other bouncing program (never used them before but would like to) to run three clients simultaneously (on three different networks), at least.

Not banned on the major IRC networks: EFNet, Dalnet, Undernet

Bonuses would be the use of screen, an email account, web space, perhaps command line ircii if my very old weird client doesn't play nice with BNC. Whom do you personally recommend, and how long have you used them?

Best IRC for Mac

MarshallPoe — Thu, 22 Jun 2006 15:25:42 -0800

What's the best IRC client for Mac if you’ve never used IRC, don’t know much about it, and are sort of dense? I’m running 10.4.6, if that matters.

IRC woes

Item — Sun, 02 Oct 2005 20:35:32 -0800

IRC woes: So all of a sudden, when I try to connect to IRC (using the Mozilla Chatzilla plugin v. 0.9.68.5.1 on OSX) I get the following error message: === *** Looking up your hostname...
=== *** Checking Ident
=== *** Found your hostname
=== *** No Ident response
=== *** Notice -- You need to install identd to use this server. If you have ident installed, ensure you are not blocking port 113 via a firewall. Visit our website for additional assistance.

This just started happening tonight; I didn't change any settings or preferences. I don't want to install Ident, whatever the hell that is. It seems sketchy. Is there anything I can do to get me up and chatting again?

IRC on port 80?

furtive — Sat, 09 Jul 2005 12:36:06 -0800

I want to use an IRC client from work, their proxy won't let me. I write software for a big bank. We're forced to use their proxy to communicate with the outside world and only port 80 is exposed. Is there any way to use IRC over port 80? The closest thing I've seen so far is running a proxy server from home, I've got a WinXP Pro box serving ftp and http at home but using it as a proxy would conflict with the http. Any suggestions?

DCC? IRC? OS X? Help!!!

hughbot — Wed, 22 Jun 2005 07:24:32 -0800

Hopefully this question makes sense, I know next-to-nothing about IRC. I'm trying to download some things off of IRC. I can always connect to a few people's severs, but most of the time I get an error message. The message tells me that the server is using a different server method, and that I need to type /dccserver something something +59. Then it helpfully informs me that this is a mIRC command. Great, I'm not using mIRC.

Right now I'm using jIRCii in OS X, which seems to be ok, but it's kind of hard to figure out, especially if, like me, you have no idea what you're doing. I've tried forwarding the ports on my router to the ports these helpful messages tell me I need to, but they still won't let me connect.

A little googling around led me to the fact that apparently no OS X apps fully support DCC and port-forwarding as of yet, or something like that, I'm still an IRC noob, so these things don't really make much sense to me. Is there a better IRC program for OS X I should be using?

(And in case you MUST know, they're episodes of Pokemon.)

Recommend places for intelligent, laid-back online chat.

LeeJay — Thu, 13 Jan 2005 06:41:43 -0800

I'm looking for intelligent conversation. Does anyone have any recommendations for laid-back online chat? [More Inside] I've never really chatted online before. I'm more of a forum gal, myself. But I was puttering around online the other night and thought I'd check out what sort of chat rooms were available. There are so many to choose from and the few I wandered into seemed awfully close to AOL meatmarket pits. I'm really just looking for a place to gab about nothing in particular without having to worry about being hit on or assaulted with AOLspeak. Anyone have any favorite spots (IRC or otherwise)?

Easiest way to get started using IRC

JoanArkham — Sat, 23 Oct 2004 06:01:55 -0800

What is the absolute easiest way to get started using IRC?

How can I bypass my VPN's blockage of several IRC ports?

Stynxno — Sun, 10 Oct 2004 10:03:53 -0800

How can I bypass my VPN's blockage of several IRC ports? [more inside] My situation: My workplace blocks several IRC ports. I'm a telecommuter and need to be logged into my workplace's VPN to allow me to remote log into a computer there. What's the best way to get me to IRC in this situation? Extra brownie points for an answer written in the "For Dummies" context.

Recommend an IRC XDCC or Fserve search engine!

signal — Fri, 24 Sep 2004 07:54:31 -0800

What's a good IRC XDCC or Fserve search engine?

Entertaining IRC Logs

the fire you left me — Fri, 03 Sep 2004 08:51:23 -0800

What is the site that is a collection of IRC logs, usually pretty entertaining?

Instant messaging across different networks. Is it possible?

karmaville — Tue, 17 Aug 2004 10:29:22 -0800

Instant messaging across different networks. Is it possible? [mi] I am trying to find a way to create a conversation from someone with a MSN account with someone with an AIM account and another with a Yahoo account for work purposes.

I looked at Trillian but I think I am misunderstanding the 'multi-network' aspect of the program or perhaps I'm just kind of stupid. Help.

How Do I Figure Out What Cryptically Named Files on Usenet Mean?

scarabic — Wed, 28 Apr 2004 17:03:43 -0800

When downloading multi-part binary posts from the VCD/SVCD groups on Usenet, there's always a zillion of them labelled only with gibberish like: "vcd-gnd1.r01" or "ctk-2.part01.rar" I know how to join and decode rar files. I just don't know what the heck's been posted, and don't want to blow 100s of megs of bandwidth to find out. I'm sure these are codes for something. Posting "clans" perhaps? Do I have to lurk on some 12-year old's IRC channel to figure out what these are? I mean, the whole copyright debate is kinda moot until you know what it is, right?

Web-Based Chat

Danf — Thu, 26 Feb 2004 10:19:33 -0800

Web-Based Chat

I have a friend who used to chat with me from IRC at work. The employer removed that program, saying that for security and virus reasons, the only browser, or anything internet would be MIE.

Since this makes Chatzilla a moot issue, are there any sites reachable from an ordinary browser that have some sort of reasonable-working chat that resembles IRC?